A Great Alternative to Ground Black Pepper

We haven't purchased Black Pepper in quite some time.  Instead, we've been making our own ground pepper using Criolla Sella peppers (a South American variety) that we grow, dry and grind.  They have a unique bright orange color, a smoky aroma, and a deep flavor that is just perfect for seasoning our dishes - a little heat, but not an over-powering spiciness.

The plants are prolific producers of peppers that grow to a maximum of about 3 inches long and go from green to day-glo orange in the matter of a day or so.  We harvest every couple of days.  We only have two plants in the garden, but really that's all we need.  The plants grow to about 3 feet tall, bushy, with lots of foliage and produce well in dry or wet conditions.

Ripened Criolla Sella Peppers ready for picking

We'll bring the ripe peppers in, wash them up to clean them.  Sometimes there will be spider webs or other debris that we have to get off of them prior to processing. Then we pull the green stem and cap off of the pepper.  I've tried several different ways to dry them and the one that I think works the best is to split the peppers in half.  I then use a potato peeler to run along the inside to remove the seeds.

I remove the seeds if I want to make ground pepper, but sometimes (especially for seasoning chili) I'll leave the seeds in to allow a little more heat to come through. Then I'll put the split peppers in our food dehydrator trays and turn it on.  I'll check on them from time to time and when one is dry enough to crumble in my hand, it's ready!

Dried Criolla Sellas

I'll put the chopping blade on the food processor and dump the dried peppers in. How about the color of these peppers?  Aren't they more exciting looking than dull, boring black pepper?

Ready to Grind

I'll just turn the processor on the highest setting and let it chop.

Chop Chop

I'll check on it and when it is ground to the consistency that I'm aiming for, I'll remove the blade and use a funnel to pour the pepper into containers that I save.

Ground Orange Pepper

The ground pepper is very aromatic.  I have yet to be able to make a batch without sneezing!

Ah, Ah, Ah Chew!

We make a batch every week or so and continue to fill up old pepper or seasoning containers that we have saved.

Spicy Criolla Sellas

We have used different seasoning mixes in the past like Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning or Slap Ya Momma, but I think that we're going to experiment with making our own by adding salt, garlic powder and some other spices, and mixing it all up real good in the food processor and funneling it back into the seasoning can. We'll let you know how that goes.